James Clerk Maxwell combined Gauss's law, Faraday's law, and Ampère's law into four vector equations describing how electric fields E and magnetic fields B behave and interact.
The four laws in plain language
Electric charges create electric fields (Gauss). There are no magnetic monopoles — magnetic field lines always close (Gauss for magnetism). Changing magnetic fields create electric fields (Faraday). Currents and changing electric fields create magnetic fields (Ampère-Maxwell).
Light is an electromagnetic wave
Maxwell's equations predict waves traveling at c = 1/√(με) — the speed of light. Light, radio, X-rays, and Wi-Fi are the same phenomenon at different frequencies.
Visualize field lines oscillating in our Visual Studio and hear wave patterns in the Sound Studio on Equation Universe.
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